Ben Curtis/Associated Press
Logan Martin and Charlotte Worthington took home the first-ever gold medals in BMX freestyle on Saturday night.
Martin turned in the best overall score in the men’s park competition. The final consists of two runs with the best score being the one that counts.
Martin added the gold medal to a growing list of achievements that also includes the 2021 world championship in the cycling discipline.
Worthington took down reigning women’s world champion Hannah Roberts with the highest-scoring run from either gender inside the Ariake Urban Sports Park.
Worthington unleashed a 360-backflip trick on her second run to produce a 97.50 score and a gold medal for Great Britain.
BMX Freestyle Results
Men’s Park Final
1. Logan Martin, Australia (93.30)
2. Daniel Dhers, Venezuela (92.05)
3. Declan Brooks, Great Britain (90.80)
4. Kenneth Tencio, Costa Rica (90.50)
5. Rim Nakamura, Japan (85.10)
6. Irek Rizaev, Russian Olympic Committee (82.40)
7. Anthony Jeanjean, France (78.20)
8. Justin Dowell, United States (44.60)
9. Nick Bruce, United States (24.60)
Logan Martin laid down the gold standard in the first of two runs in the men’s final and no one was able to match him.
The Australian posted a run worth a score of 93.30. No other rider got within a full point of his score in either of the two runs.
Martin’s high first-run score allowed him to do a victory lap for part of his second run before he shut down the tricks to begin his celebration.
Daniel Dhers of Venezuela vaulted into the silver medal position with his second run score of 92.05. Dhers was the only rider to produce a pair of scores in the 90s.
Great Britain’s Declan Brooks won a tight battle for third place. He beat out Costa Rica’s Kenneth Tencio by .3 points. Both riders turned in their best efforts on the second run.
There were two American qualifiers for the men’s park final, but they failed to make an impact on the final and finished in the bottom two positions.
Women’s Park Final
1. Charlotte Worthington, Great Britain (97.50)
2. Hannah Roberts, United States (96.10)
3. Nikita Ducarroz, Switzerland (89.20)
4. Perris Benegas, United States (88.50)
5. Natalya Diehm, Australia (86.00)
6. Lara Lessmann, Germany (79.60)
7. Minato Oike, Japan (75.40)
8. Macarena Perez Grasset, Chile (73.80)
9. Elizaveta Posadskikh, Russian Olympic Committee (63.00)
Worthington went from last to first in the second run thanks to the first 360-backflip trick landed in women’s competition.
The British cyclist could not have asked for a better run throughout the freestyle course. She went from a 38.60 in last place to a 97.50 in first place that could not be touched.
Worthington admitted after the competition that she was looking for a major trick to finish off the competition, per BBC Sport.
“It was incredible,” Worthington said. “I’ve not been doing that trick for so long but we’ve been trying to find that big banger trick and when we did we thought, ‘this is the one’. If it wasn’t for Hannah Roberts we wouldn’t be doing these tricks or be this far.
Roberts had a go at the top score in the final run of the competition, but she was unable to return her left foot to the pedal at the end of one of her jumps.
Roberts and fellow American Perris Benegas qualified as the top two seeds in the event. Benegas was not able to back up her status as No. 2 qualifier to finish in the medals.
Roberts recorded a score of 96.10 in her opening run to lay down the standard for Worthington and others to match.
Switzerland’s Nikita Ducarroz came in second to Roberts after the opening run of the final. She did not improve on her second leg, which placed in her third after Worthington’s monster ride.
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